The Journal "Agriculture and Forestry"
Časopis "Poljoprivreda i šumarstvo"
- Since 1955 -
Year 2018, Volume 64 Issue 4 (15.12.2018)
| Year : | 2018 |
| Volume : | 64 |
| Issue : | 4 (15.12.2018) |
| Authors : | Ruzica LUKETINA, Hamid EL BILALI, Sinisa BERJAN, Maria WURZINGER |
| Title : | SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS IN BOSNIAN AGRO-FOOD SYSTEM |
| Abstract : | Agriculture plays an important socio-economic role in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH); the rural population accounts for 61% and almost half of the rural households is still engaged in agriculture. Faced with several environmental, economic and social problems, Bosnian agriculture needs a deep transformation to achieve both food security and food system sustainability. This paper explores the dynamics of past and ongoing transition towards sustainability in Bosnian agro-food system through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions. MLP heuristic posits that transitions come about through interacting processes within and between niches (locus of radical innovations), regimes (locus of established and dominant socio-technical system) and an exogenous landscape. There are different agro-food niches in BiH (e.g. organic farming) but they are still marginal both in terms of land use and market share. Bosnia is characterised by a dual agro-food regime i.e. traditional farming and intensive agriculture. Landscape factors (e.g. civil war, Common Agricultural Policy, climate change) have shaped transformation in both sub-regimes. It is argued that changing climate and harmonisation with the regulatory acquis of the European Union will put pressure on the agro-food regime, whose de-alignment will create opportunities for nascent agro-food niches in the country. This also implies that transition pathways will likely be diverse; from technological/input substitution, to transformation and reconfiguration. Diversity of pathways means that different, tailored policy interventions are needed to foster transition-in-the-making towards sustainable agro-food system in BiH. MLP is useful to map sustainability transitions but further refinement is needed to adapt it to agro-food systems. |
| For citation : | Luketina, R., Bilali el, H., Berjan, S., Wurzinger, M. (2018): Sustainability transitions in Bosnian agro-food system. Agriculture and Forestry, 64 (4): 29-38. DOI:10.17707/AgricultForest.64.4.04 |
| Keywords : | sustainability transitions, Multi-Level Perspective, agro-food system, agriculture, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
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